Despite it being an extremely wet and windy night, Sarum Orienteers gathered at the famous White Hart Hotel in Salisbury for their first annual dinner and awards presentations since Covid prevented the usual get together. Staff shortages and a simultaneous rival event added a somewhat Fawlty Towers feeling to a long, but very enjoyable, evening out with friends.
A quick change to the planned programme saw the gaps between courses filled with our Awards presentations, starting off with the Martin Cochrane Award. Martin was a selfless, unassuming man who always made himself available to help out at Sarum events before going out to enjoy his usual walk around one of the easier courses. After helping the download/results team at the JK one year Martin went off on his course but never made it round and was found, collapsed, near his third control. The Award is given to someone in the Club who has given exceptional service to our orienteering over a period of time or something more specific. This year the worthy winner was Hugh Holmes, who has taken on the job of Club Secretary with great enthusiasm and skill enabling the Committee to meet via Zoom from an amazing array of far flung locations.
The Ron Ley Trophy is awarded to the winner of the Club Galoppen which records the performances of club runners at events over the past year ranking them against their peers and the whole club. This year’s winner was Dan Robertson, the youngest ever to take the Trophy.
Pam Errington was a very committed coach for Sarum and SWOA juniors and The Pam Errington Trophy is given to a youngster who has shown particular development and success over the year. This year the award went to Max Duncan for his efforts in moving on from mastering junior courses to taking on Light Green. We even got a smile out of our own Jack Dee!
Orange Colour Code Badges were awarded to Max Duncan and Dan Robertson, Yellow Badges to Joe Robertson and Barnes Dickinson and a White Badge to George Ashton (M7).
After the Main course we returned to presentations with Dan Cope taking over to hand out this year’s ‘Dannies’ which are given to club members who have done something notable for the Club, be that useful, amusing, or just original. Dan always adds a pinch of spice to this part of the evening. This year this involved the use of Artificial (?) Intelligence to determine a quirky Orienteering Personality for each winner. These, in turn, left the awardees slightly bewildered and the rest of us amused.
Foreign Correspondent: Hugh Holmes, for keeping up with committee meetings from the Falklands to N. Scotland and places in between; Grant Hat Trick, Peter Hambleton for getting a third grant from Sport England; Relay Mis-puncher, Paul Lane, for missing a control in two relays this summer; Perseverance, Max Duncan for keeping going – he took 66 min. to find the first control in one event but still completed the course; Great Supporter, Phil Hall for his help over many years; Patient Patient, Alan Yeadon for managing the end up in A&E at 2 events this year; Night Planner, Andrew Graham for the Tisbury Event; Most Enthusiastic Improver, Sarah Robertson, a fast runner who isn’t afraid to get lost – at speed!; Great Junior Committee rep, Alice Thirkell, for her youthful insights; Newest postmaster , Ian Tait for training to take on his local Post Office – a first for the club; Long Distance Fund Raiser Gwyn Davies, for running an extra 4km on top of a half marathon to get to 25km and raising £1k for Kidasha, a charity supporting Nepalese children. Finally, Liz Yeadon turned the tables on Dan by presenting him an award (Greatest Marathon Runner) for his own effort of running 7 marathons in 7 days raising £10k in support of the Royal British Legion.
After all that excitement we finally got round to desserts, coffee and final chats before heading home. Dave and Denise, I hope you didn’t get wet walking back to your car at Elizabeth Gardens – there really is a Car Park at the back of the hotel!
Thanks to Liz Yeadon and Chris Huthwaite for doing most of the organising and to the White Hart for helping make it a memorable evening. See you all next year!